Clan Wolf Mission : Cold Crescent

Mission Instructions

- Incoming Coded Message -- Kurultai Instruction Follows -
- Decode Jaw Protocol - GALxAlpha 327th: 3rd
- Disseminate by need only -

The battle for Icegrief Pass rages on the surface of Morges.

The enemy is terraforming Karetah, Morges's large moon. Karetah has enough untapped natural resources to perhaps single-handedly support the enemy war machine indefinitely. To prevent this, the Touman has decided to sabotage their MAIN TERRAFORMER UNIT on the moon's Batista Flats.

We have captured a Jade Falcon 'Mech and have loaded the current enemy IFF code into the onboard computers. Using the captured Falcon 'Mech you will travel to NAV LAMBDA for an ambush on a patrolling enemy Falcon 'Mech identical to your own. After destroying the 'Mech, you will then assume his identity by following the NAV sequence to the FALCON BASE where the enemy will recognize the IFF code. Find the MAIN TERRAFORMER UNIT and then DESTROY the CORE and get out.

The TERRAFORMER UNIT is hardened. You will need to circle the UNIT to find a weak spot in the cone. Engage no one unless first attacked. Failure is not an option. Return only if victorious.

Objectives

Situations and Aftermaths

"War is never really won by anyone who participates in it. War simply rearranges the way things were and steals the promise of tomorrow from each side. To succeed at war you have to lose a part of your humanity. After you win enough wars, you have no humanity left because you lost a piece of it each time you killed someone."

--Excerpt from the private diary of Major Leon James of the Kell Hounds

Inside his Wolfhound, saKhan Phelan Ward of the Wolf Clan watched the early morning sky lighten over Icegrief Pass. Howling winds buffeted his 'Mech, blowing clouds of snow and ice before them, but the knife-edged cold could not penetrate the cockpit. Soon the sun would rise and strike a thousand sparks from the snow-covered ground. The Jade Falcons would land before too much longer, and then battle must be joined.

A harsh voice crackled over Phelan's comm channel. "This is Star Colonel Angeline Mattlov of Clan Jade Falcon. I have a message for the freebirth called Phelan Ward."

Phelan flicked a switch and answered. "Have you come to your senses, Star Colonel, and  decided to withdraw your forces without a fight? Such wisdom deserves mercy. I will allow you and your warriors to leave the system--without your 'Mechs, of course."

"Bold words, freebirth--but worth little. I have the honor to announce the death of the traitor, Star Colonel Ulric Kerensky. He died on Wotan, in a Circle of Equals, at the hands of our saKhan Vandervahn Chistu."

Suddenly cold, Phelan could muster no reply. After a moment of silence, Mattlov's gloating voice continued. "After the traitor's death, our forces destroyed the Wolves' command and control units. The few Wolf warriors who fled their utter defeat on Wotan will not reach you in time to reinforce your meager strength. You and your Wolves are lost, Phelan. Without the Black Widow and the Gray Wolf, you will fall as they did."

Natasha and Ulric. Both dead. Only I am left. Phelan closed his eyes and pushed his grief to the back of his mind. He suddenly wanted to laugh his defiance in Mattlov's face. She expected her bombshell to demoralize him and his troops. Instead, the knowledge of Ulric's sacrifice had the opposite effect. Unconsciously straightening in his command couch, Phelan answered the only way he could.

"Wrong as usual, old woman," he said. "We revere the spirits of Ulric and Natasha even more with their passing. So much did they trust in us that they gladly risked death to ensure that we could destroy you here. Once again you have underestimated us--and your Galaxy will pay the price for your folly."

Situation

On December 5, 3057, the Jade Falcon Omicron and Peregrine Galaxies arrived in the Morges system to exterminate the remaining warriors of the Wolf Clan. Much to their surprise, they found themselves facing not the two Wolf Galaxies they had expected, but one Wolf Galaxy and two regiments of the Kell Hounds, the famed Inner Sphere mercenary unit. Khan Phelan also bid his Sixteenth Battle Cluster, and chose the southern polar continent of Morges as the site of the battle.

Furious at being forced to fight "a gang of dirty freebirths," Star Colonel Angeline Mattlov bid all the forces at her disposal: five front-line Clusters, five garrison Clusters, and even a solahma unit. The Jade Falcons dropped onto Morges on 13 December, into the teeth of Khan Phelan's fortified and entrenched combined-arms forces. The frozen landscape of Icegrief Pass became the first of many battlegrounds in a conflict that would decide the fate of Clans Wolf and Jade Falcon.

Aftermath

The Kell Hounds pounded the Falcons at Icegrief Pass, thanks to a concerted effort by the mercenaries that cost the Falcons the entire 4th Talon Cluster. During the savage fighting, several Falcon MechWarriors ejected from their 'Mechs, only to be caught in a barrage of laser fire from their Inner Sphere opponents. Once again, the Hounds showed the Jade Falcons the folly of underestimating the MechWarriors of the Inner Sphere.